What My Kitchen Rules reinforced in me

Jo and I have recently been watching My Kitchen Rules - or MRK to those of you familiar with this programme. I haven’t been regularly watching the series so I didn’t know anything about the personalities or the group dynamic but like all reality TV shows the producers edit it in a way which gets you up to speed very quickly. Within minutes I knew that the couple who were hosting tonight’s dinner had been very confident about their ability up until this point and had been very critical of others whilst being guests at the other dinner parties. Based purely on how they had talked themselves up, this couple knew they were the ones to beat in the competition, they were confident they could win, worst case they would get top three.

The next hour of MKR was a clear example of how self confidence can be whittled down to almost nothing very quickly, everything they touched turned into a nightmare and as it turns out their self perception was well above their ability.

Reality TV is designed to get the viewer to create strong opinions about the people on the show and build an emotional connection towards them, if you like them you want them to succeed, if you don’t, failure is the outcome you hope for. This particular couple on MKR was one whom you were happy to see fail - and fail they did, they were the first to be voted off the show and as they were walking off the stage after their elimination, we heard their voiceovers talking about how they felt. The girl said something along the lines of ‘I’m too cocky, I’ve realised that sometimes I’m over confident in an unrealistic way and this is something I need to work on’.

Now I know that reality TV is hardly an experience that develops and grows the mind but there was some great insight in that moment. This couple had gone through a very challenging experience and failed in a way that they were probably embarrassed about, but this experience had made them reflect on themselves in a way that allowed them to see where they needed to shift as people.

When it comes to progress in life one of the most powerful tools we can use is self-reflection. When you think about times where you have created massive change it’s likely that the desire for change started when you reflected on your current situation. Sometimes reflection is forced upon us, like the couple in MKR, while other times we deliberately include it in our daily life.

To me, pro-actively incorporating some form of reflection into your daily life keeps you heading on the right path, it’s one of the most important tools we have to stay on track. We can also use reflection when we have come out of a challenge or growth period, at these times there is so much to learn when you look back on what you were trying to achieve and assess your behaviours, learn from your failings and acknowledge your strengths. This learning gives you a deep understanding of where you can develop yourself on your future path.

When you go through how well you did at a challenge, where you could improve, and what successes you had will all help you gain an understanding of what you need to focus on as you move towards your next challenge. Through this reflection in a fitness challenge you may discover a couple of small things that can have a big impact. You could discover that you work really well when you have a tick box reward system when facing a challenge but perhaps you struggle with exercise at the end of the day when you get home from work. With this learning you can use the tick box in your future challenges and plan exercise in times where you know you’ll have better energy.

If you continue to do this type of reflection work after every challenge you face whether it be in fitness, at work, or at home you will gain amazing insight into how you ‘tick’, what makes you successful and as you move into your future challenges you’ll get better at setting yourself up for success.

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